Valentine and Maude
By Jeanne Bacigalupo, Margaret McPhee Stevenson and John Walker
Val's mother, Theresia Reindl, was born in Bavaria, Germany and was the youngest of seven children. Their parents died due to a throat disease when Theresia was two years old. An administrator took care of the family finances until the children were of age. Theresia had four brothers, three were Catholic priests: John, Joseph and Barnabas. The fourth brother stayed on the farm in Bavaria. John and Joseph came to Wisconsin, U.S.A., John settled in Schleisingerville and later in South Oshkosh. He remained in the same parish for twenty-three years, until his death of heart attack in 1890 or 1891. Joseph first settled in Barton, north-east of Schleisingerville and later traveled to China as a missionary. He was there two years when he died from sunstroke. Barnabas remained in Bavaria until his death in 1890 or 91.
Theresia came to Schleisingerville, Wisconsin, U.S.A. and worked for people who kept a general store until she married John Redig Aug. 3, 1859. He was a widower whose wife died giving birth. The family lived in a little two
story stone house in a town called Oshkosh. Theresa was eight years old and Philp was a baby when John and Theresia were married. John was drafted into the Civil War and a tintype picture had been taken of him then. There are no pictures of Theresia.
John and Theresa had 8 children. According to an 1870 census of Wisconsin, town of Schleisingerville, there was a John Redig age 48, a farmer born at Hesse, Darmstadt, and a Theresa (in her letter, Catherine spelled the name Theresia) age 36 years old, born in Bavaria. Living at their home was: Theresa, age 19, Philip age 11, Mary, age 9, Joseph, age 8, Frederick, age 6, Anna age 4, and Elizabeth age, one year. Valentine, Margret and Catherine were born after these. Valentine was born in 1871, Margret in 1875 and Catherine in 1878. Theresia died in 1878 when she was about forty-four years old. Valentine was then seven years old and Catherine was three months old. Margret died eighteen months before Catherine was born.
In later years, John let his beard grow long; Catherine said in her letter to Ethel Redig Northgraves: "He did not have time to shave. He worked pretty hard in his last years up to about six months before he passed away, Dec. 21, 1898". Granddad Redig and I were always alone over winter months from beginning of November to about the middle of April to take care of horses, cows, pigs, geese, and chickens
Maude was born in 1868 and was two years old when her mother Eliza, brought her and baby sister, Jessie, six weeks old, to Canada where their father, Arthur W. Kent, was expecting them. It must have taken a great deal of courage for Eliza to leave their home in Croydon, England and undertake the six-week voyage with a small baby and young child. Two year old Maude continually cried for "grannies tatoos". About 1870, Arthur W. Kent, Eliza's husband, had come ahead to Ontario, Canada, where he had two brothers. Eliza, Arthur and the children, first settled in Grimsby, Ontario for a while, then moved to Michigan State, then to Lincoln Illinois and later moved to Lacombe, Alberta, where they built a small home about six miles out of the town (Ethel Kent Thomson's notes). Maude was the eldest of a family of fourteen (not all the babies survived).
Valentine Redig left his home in Oshkosh Wisconsin when he was seventeen years old, to work in a creamery in Lyons
Nebraska. He boarded with a family called the Darlings; this is where he met Maude Kent who later became his wife. Maude was a niece to Mrs. Darling (Granddad Kent’s sister, Maria). Growing up, Maude worked hard at home sewing, cooking and cleaning to help with the large family. It was probably a vacation for her to visit her ‘Aunt Darling’, as they called her busy in the Creamery and could not get away. He was twenty-six years old and she was an attractive lady of twenty-nine years. Valentine was a tall and handsome man who boarded at the Darling's. Valentine and Maude were to be married Feb. 27, 1897 but evidently Valentine wasn’t allowed to take time of work to travel to Maude’s home for the wedding, so Aunt Darling volunteered to host it. Val and Maude were very fond of Aunt Darling, who always remained an important part of their lives.
Valentine and Maude were married at the residence of L. L. Darling in Lyons, Nebraska on March 4, 1897. Rev. John Watson, an Episcopal minister of Omaha, officiated.
More than 70 guests assembled at the residence of L. L. Darling last Saturday evening to witness the marriage ceremony. The bridal pair stood directly under a large arch from which was suspended with beautiful wedding bells. Miss Agnes Smith was the bridesmaid and Emory Clement groomsman. The audience was so large that it was impossible to seat them all at one table so the
elegant supper was served on small tables and was one of the best and most sumptuous ever given at any wedding in Lyons Nebraska.
The groom is a young man of sterling qualities and good habits and at present is manager of the Lyons Creamery.
The bride is a niece of L. L. Darling and is a very accomplished lady and highly spoken of by all her acquaintances.
The Lyons Mirror joins with the many friends in wishing them many pleasant years of wedded life.
So happy were all present and so pleasantly did they enjoy themselves that they did not notice that the clock had been turned backwards, causing them to remain longer than was customary. They received a large number of elegant, valuable and useful presents. The young couple lived with the Darlings for awhile until they were able to move into their own home.
The couple's first child, Florence Ilene, was born March 4, 1898. Valentine's father, John Redig, passed away Dec. 21, 1898. When Florence was fourteen months old, Valentine and Maude moved to Lacombe, Alberta in May 1899. Maude and her baby traveled on the Settlers' train, which had a wood burning stove to help warm the passengers. The Darlings had moved to Lacombe a year or so earlier and the young couple once again resided with them, this time, for six months, until Val cleared a piece of his 160 acres a mile north of town and built a sod-roofed log cabin. Val, Maude, and their family were to call this cabin home for 10 years, during which time three more daughters were born, Jessie in 1901, Helen in 1903 and Ethel in 1906.
Maude, Val, and their daughters were fortunate to have family members (besides the Darlings) living nearby. They were strangers in this unsettled land, and neighbors were few and far between. Maude's parents, Eliza Anne West Kent and Arthur Wood Kent, emigrated to Lacombe from Illinois a few years after Maude and Val, bring with them the five children who were still living at home. Maude was the oldest of a large family, some of whom were already married or away working when their parents moved to Canada. The five who came to Canada with Eliza and Arthur were three sons, Art, Alf and Dim (Endimion) and two daughters, Gertie and Ethel, their youngest child, who was only nine at the time of the move. Arthur Kent and his three sons started a painting and paperhanging business in the town of Lacombe and had a store where they sold supplies.
We lived with them until Father got some land, six miles South East of Lacombe. Since a house had to be built, all hands helped to get the logs." (From Ethel's notes.) Jessie and Nellie (older sisters) were married and stayed in Illinois.
Valentine and Maude
paid five hundred dollars for 
their farm. He brought with him from
Nebraska, some farm equipment, three or four cows and a few
horses. Unfortunately, a horse and a cow died, which was a costly
setback, as they had to be replaced. Valentine went to work on a
road-building project to pay the taxes on the property. They
lived in the small log house for nine years before they were able
to have their larger home built about 1909. During this time,
their family had grown. Jessie Mayo was born April 5, 1901, Helen
Maude Valentine, Dec. 5, 1903 and Ethel Elgerta, March 7, 1906.
Another baby girl was born at eight months but Maude hemorrhaged
and the baby lost its blood and died. The doctor stayed all night
and put brandy on Maude's pulse and had her sip some. It was a
long time before she regained her strength. Their youngest
daughter, Maudie Lucille, was born July 28, 1910, after the move
into the new home.
Roll ends of wallpaper from Grandfather Kent’s store were used to cover the inside walls of Val and Maude’s log cabin. Layer after layer, pattern upon pattern, were applied over the years to keep out the weather and keep in the heat from the wood burning stove. At the end of 10 years, when they moved into the "big house", the wallpaper made such a thick layer that Florence’s sister, Helen, said that it would have stood up all by itself.
Florence’s memories of life in the log cabin included seeing friendly Indians gazing curiously through the windows at the white people whom were now their neighbors. While they were still living in the cabin, Florence started school in a room over her grandfather’s store, which was used as the classroom until a school could be built.
When Florence was the only one in the family going to school, she may have had the opportunity to spend more time with her grandparents, which she loved.
At over ninety-one years of age, Helen could remember distinctly some things that happened when she was about three years old. She remembered liking very much to help milk the cows. She stripped and stripped away into a little tin cup and did get some milk. She remembered Aunt Gertie her mother's sister helping with the milking and that the cows were not tied but stood still while being milked. She also remembered when they made the move into the new house that she and her younger sister, Ethel Redig Northgraves, who was about twenty months old, wanted to help. They asked what could they carry. Ethel was given a stick to carry, but she often returned to the little house and banged away at the door for someone to open and let her in. Helen was given an oven scraper to carry into the new house.
Florence, Helen, Ethel, Maude and Jessie Redig - about 1912
It must have seemed like a palace for the six of them after living in the log cabin. There was a large kitchen and a pantry across one end of the main floor. Off the kitchen was the dining room, also large, where as many as 14 harvesters were fed each fall. There was a small parlor, a very formal room, which housed the piano, the family Bible, a small love seat with ornate wooden back and arms, and a chair or two. The girls went into the parlor to practice the piano, and important visitors, such as the minister, were entertained there. Val and Maude’s bedroom was also on the main floor. The new white house had three bedrooms upstairs, each with a large closet. Later, Valentine had the house lifted and a basement built underneath. There was a large carpet with huge pink roses on a cream coloured background. Helen remembered her Aunt Gertie spreading damp tea leaves on the carpets before she swept. Much later, the carpet was replaced with linoleum.
There were no inside bathrooms, no electricity or running water. Their well was about a block away from the house and Valentine carried the water in two buckets, one in each hand, and kept the house supplied. It was a good well, the water was hard at first but when they went deeper, they had soft water. Sometimes, the girls helped. Helen mentioned in a telephone call that She and Ethel carried buckets of snow one after the other to fill the boiler on the stove with water for their Saturday evening bath. The metal tub, probably round, with two handles, was placed in the kitchen near the open oven door; the smallest child had her bath first, continuing on to the oldest, using the same water.
A tall Poplar tree grew on each of two sides of the house and an evergreen tree was outside the bedroom window. Maude planted a row of Manitoba Maples nearby and Valentine built a bench to sit upon and hung a swing for their girls.
Valentine was a large boned, lean man, close to six feet tall. He was generous and kind with a great sense of humour. Valentine was also industrious, frugal and orderly. He kept the ashes cleaned out from the three wood burning stoves, basement, kitchen and front room. There was always a supply of chopped wood and kindling; the stoves were lit in the morning before the rest of the family was up. Before winter came, each year, he took his team and wagon east of the town and cut by hand the trees he needed for firewood. He got the wood for his labour taking out the stumps, which helped clear the land. After hauling the wood home, he borrowed a gasoline engine from a neighbour and cut the logs which he later had to stack and split. He had no sons to help him.
During the haying season, Valentine arose at five o'clock in the morning to milk the cows. Soon he was in the field stooking the hay, sometimes until one O'clock in the morning. Helen and Jessie helped with the stooking when they were old enough. Before he was married, Valentine was a butter maker and had obtained a steam engineer certificate. This enabled him to be a steam engineer for threshing crews and he did this into October. He traveled south quite a way with the threshing crew. When the threshers were at their place, Maude had twelve extra people to feed three meals. When Valentine was away, Maude's sister, Gertie stayed with her and helped milk the cows.
In the wintertime, when the girls were small, Valentine drove them to school with the horse and bobsled, picking up neighbour children along the way. When they were older and could drive the horse themselves, Valentine had the horse hitched to the buggy, ready to go every morning. In the wintertime, he tucked them in with heated, wrapped bricks, giving them a warn send off.
Maude was an excellent seamstress and made most all the clothing for the five girls. She also tended a large garden with the girls helping sometimes. They had a large potato garden and stored them and other root vegetables in the basement during the winter. They had potatoes for most meals and Helen said she has peeled potatoes almost everyday of her life as that was her job after school, to peel the potatoes for their evening meal. There was a section of land next to theirs that had nothing but wild berries growing on it which were free for the picking. Maude canned many dozens of jars of raspberries and blue berries for their winter fruit. She also canned rhubarb with pineapple or other fruit to help sweeten it.
Many sheep grazed the rolling pasture-land of their farm and often a lamb greeted the girls as they came home from school, loving to play with them and chase around and around outside the house. Valentine sheared the sheep and stored the wool until the price was right. He raised mink and sold their pelts. Also, he raised, plucked and cleaned chickens, which he sold, ready for the oven. The family always had a good supply of fresh eggs. From their cows' milk the family was able to get enough cream and butter for their own use and some to sell. With a wooden box-like form, he moulded into pounds the butter, which his girls had churned and took it off to market. To make the work easier for Maude, Valentine bought a hand operated bread mixer and often the girls turned it for her, as she was a very small and slight woman. Valentine was a very tidy man everything had to be in its place. The girls had to make sure that everything they used was put back where they had found it. Helen said that there was never a stick out of place. He was a kind loving father, but a strict disciplinarian, very insistent on good behaviour at the dinner table.
Florence loved riding their saddle horse, Bess, and continued to ride as an adult every time she was back on the farm. Florence didn't leave home until she was nineteen years old. In time, Bess became Old Bess, and some of Florence’s children learned to ride her, as well.
Florence’s memories of her childhood focused on the closeness of the family ties. She loved to visit her grandparents and had a special bond with her aunts, Gertie and Ethel, who were more like older sisters. Florence had a close relationship with her grandmother, and stayed with her grandparents as often as she could. There is a fragment of a letter remaining, one written by Grandmother Kent to Florence after her first child was born, that speaks of the warm, loving, relationship.
Ethel and Helen were constant companions. When they were about eight and eleven years old, during the summer Helen said that they would sometimes have a little nap. Then they would go into the garden and dig up a carrot each, wash it in the horses' water-trough, pick a large rhubarb leaf each which they used as sun parasols and walk up the lane toward the road visiting with each other all along the way. In the wintertime, they loved to find an unmarked space of snow and make a fox and goose ring. They were always together and usually chattering and laughing (much as they did in later years)
Florence often spoke of Christmas in the big house on the farm. Preparations and baking would take weeks, and when the big day arrived, Val would go into town with the horses and a large sleigh and bring the Kent and Darling families back to the farm. What excitement! Of course they stayed the night. In the evening they held a family concert. All the children would have prepared a verse or a song to present to the family. There would be games and singing, and the children could stay up late. Decorations were homemade, as were the gifts. Life was not easy in those pioneer days, but there was great joy in being together and in celebrating their good fortune in having each other.
As all the girls grew older, they helped with the work. In the summer time, when their father worked in the fields, Jessie and Helen usually milked two or three cows and separated the cream from the milk each day before school. In addition, they took a few turns each, making one hundred pumps at the water pump so the animals could drink. They made their own lunches and did the breakfast dishes.
Of course, there were wonderful times of recreation. Florence took piano lessons and passed her knowledge on to Helen; Jessie took violin lessons; later, they all played together. When Florence had finished tenth grade at fifteen years of age, her family sent her off to a business school because there were three or so months of paid up time that Florence had not used for her training. Helen really had wanted to be a teacher but at this point didn't have much choice.
As far back as she can remember, she said that her mother let her stay with her grandmother and grandfather Kent for three or four days at a time. They lived in a little cottage; her grandfather had red hair and moustache red whiskers and a beard that came down three or four inches. Some evenings, friends came to visit and they were served refreshments. I got my first piece of cheese there and it tasted so good. I think it was made differently then. I don't know whether we couldn't afford it or if Mom didn't make it. Anyway, the next time I remember having cheese was when we were picking blueberries, way out East of Lacombe, and Mom put cheese and bread and butter in sandwiches, a big slab of cheese and we thought we were in heaven. While at Grandma Kent's home, I would go out doors and look for four-leaf clovers: there were all kinds of them. I amused myself looking for them and I took them into Grandma to show her. I remember my Aunt Mable (Aunt Gertie's husband's sister) having her first baby there. (There were two families, brother sister married sister brother; Mable married Uncle Dim) When I was about seven years old, Grandma Kent was still cooking in the kitchen and able to get around well. They came out to our place on the farm every Sunday. Dad would go in and get them with horses and buggy or sled and then take them back again, about one and a half miles each way. Dad got his first car when I was about seventeen years old. Grandpa Kent had a paint and paper store. He gave us a nickel for candy when we went there. One day I went in and he didn’t give us
any. I decided to ask for it, but got a lecture on not asking for things.
Helen was eight years old in Oct. 1912 when Grandpa Kent died at the age of sixty three, in his home. She said that she remembered seeing him in his coffin in her family's home in Lacombe and that he had been a Mason. In one of the pictures of the whole family, he is wearing the Mason's emblem on a chain attached to his vest or waistcoat. He had owned the paint and paper store in Lacombe and it had the A.W. Kent name on the storefront. As a young child, Florence started school in the room above the store; there was no other school there for her to attend. That must have been 1904 or 1905 as she was born in 1898 (Helen’s letter 5/29/93). Ethel was about five years old at the time of her Grandpa Kent's death. When Eliza Ann West Kent died in the Redig home, at the age of seventy-one years, Ethel was in grade nine and Helen was seventeen years old. Both Eliza and Arthur are buried in Lacombe, Alberta, Canada. They had belonged to the Church of England.
Helen remembered Aunt Mary and Aunt Katie, Valentine's sisters from Wisconsin coming to visit them. Aunt Mary was about seventeen years older than Katie was and both were rather stout, large women. In addition, a brother, of Valentine's, Fred, who lived in California, and had never married, occasionally came to visit them. (See his picture sitting on the doorstep of the Redig house with the Redig girls with him.)
Family pictures depict Florence as a serious, solemn, child who was probably shy. She was very musical, with a clear soprano voice and a light touch on the piano. Florence loved her piano lessons; she did well, and was serious about her responsibility to teach the younger girls. Her passion for music continued all the years of her life. As the technology developed she was able to listen to musical programs on the radio, including the Saturday afternoon operas, then own a stereo and collect her own records. In later years she was able to attend symphony concerts, ballet and opera performances in Edmonton with her daughters, Lucille and Margaret, and remembered the story and music of every opera she attended. There is no doubt that her love of music was a great comfort to Florence on her life’s long journey.
At that time, most women learned how to sew, as it was necessary for them to make clothes for their families and for themselves. Florence and her sisters were taught at home on the treadle sewing machine. Florence was particularly skillful at sewing and, as a young lady, took dressmaking and tailoring courses that she was able to use all her life. She also took a business course and then was employed as a telephone operator in Lacombe when she was 19 or 20. Here she caught the eye of the District Manager for Alberta Government Telephones, Jack McPhee. Florence and Jack were married in All Saints’ Cathedral in Edmonton on June 5, 1919, when she was 21 and he was 33.
Nineteen thirty was an especially busy year for Maude and Valentine. Three weddings were held in their home. Ethel and Arthur Northgraves, March 2, Helen and Frank Richter, June 21 and Jessie and Ken Walker, July 15. A minister of the High English Church married all the couples. The next year three new grandchildren were born. Florence had been married for eleven years and contributed the first grandchildren.
The years went by; and there were more grandchildren. Once again children's voices were heard in the big house as they came with their parents to visit Valentine and Maude, now growing a little older. Helen spent a year with her parents after her first baby Sanda was born because her husband was building a larger home for them in the Kootenay area of B.C. She was able to make other visits occasionally.
Ethel
traveled the hundred miles from Gadsby with husband Art and four children,
usually in the summer when the roads were less muddy. They were mostly rough
dirt roads then, and every bump could be felt in the Model A Ford. Heat was a
problem in the summer time, but one time, Helen remembered, her nephew, Donald,
being very glad for the snap down buttons holding the window coverings shut.
Maybe that was one cool time. Then, it was quite a long trip, with no air
conditioning and no heater, no disposable diapers or fast foods. Jessie must
have made similar trips with her family from Raymond, Alberta and Florence as
well from Grand Prairie, Alberta. Maudie was younger and married later in life;
she brought her children to visit her parents when they had moved to another
home. 
Maude Redig, Florence McPhee, Ethel Northgraves, Valentine Redig, Jack McPhee, Jessie Walker and Norma Northgraves (In front) – about 1941.
In 1945 Valentine and Maude sold the farm and moved to Chilliwack, B.C. According to Ethel's journal, June 9, 1945, Art, Fred, Norma and Ethel drove to the Fraser River, crossed on the ferry, then on to Agassiz to pick up Redig's box of household things. On June 16,1945, the Redigs arrived from Lacombe in their old car. (It had little vases to hold flowers, attached to the sides of the windshield--Jeanne's memory) Valentine and Maude lived with the Northgraves that winter, until they were able to move to their own farm, March 1, 1946. They had purchased the Eric Anderson farm, just South of the Northgraves farm; the two were about a quarter of a mile apart. Jessie, and Maudie with Cheryl, her two-year-old daughter, came to help with the move. They stayed for two weeks.
Valentine had not understood that dairy farming was so different in comparison to the type of farming he had done for so many years. Sept. 6th, 1946 he bought a small home in the town of Chilliwack, about four miles from the farms. The address was 425 Yale Rd. East, Chilliwack. B.C. After selling the farm, the Redigs moved into their little home, Dec. 5th 1946. Maude's health was failing and she began to need care. Valentine too had some health problems. In 1953, he was in the hospital for five weeks; he had a tumor blockage in his stomach. A large portion of his stomach was removed. The doctors gave him six months to live; he was not a quitter; he lived for seven more years. When Arthur brought him to the Northgraves home to recuperate, Valentine picked up a scythe and started slashing the tall grass around the farm that Arthur had not yet been able to cut down.
Helen remembered her father walking from the Safeway store to his home on Yale St., pushing a cart, full of groceries. The distance was about a mile and a half; he was over eighty years old. Another incident, remembered by Arthur, when he was building a utility shed on the back of the family home on McConnell Rd., and was busy framing the foundation; before he knew it, Granddad had moved by wheelbarrow, half a pile of gravel for the cement.
During 1952, Maude needed more care than Valentine could give; Ethel began going to her parents' home two or three times a week, giving them the care they needed. Valentine had stomach surgery in 1953, Ethel's journal states: April, 15, 1953. Mom was with us, while Dad was in the hospital. Dad was with us about two weeks before his operation and a week after. They and I moved back in town, May 20,1953. After Fred (Northgraves ) and Jean (Campbell) were married Sept. 24, 1954, I stayed in steadily, coming home Sundays. Health failing, and quit at Dad's Apr. 5, 1955. Mom and Dad have been alone since Ethel had a mastectomy in Aug. 1956.
Florence and Jessie moved their parents to Lacombe where they lived with Florence for a time and then to a nursing home in Calgary. Fall, 1959, Ethel was having a lot of pain in her back and not feeling well at all. Later she learned that the cancer had returned, this time, it was in her bones.
January 3, 1960, in Calgary, Maude had a stroke and passed away January 7 th at the age of ninety-two. June 20,1960 Valentine passed away; he was eighty-nine years old; Ethel passed away June 23, 1960, not knowing that her father had predeceased her. She was fifty-four years old. Valentine and Maude are buried in Lacombe, Alberta and Ethel in Chilliwack, B.C.
The house where Valentine and Maude Redig lived in Lacombe is gone. There is a cemetery close to where the farm was. The farm was just across the North fence of the cemetery. There is a tree nursery on some of the old and Maude lead to five more prosperous families farm property and an airplane landing strip is on what was the lower pasture. There are mobile home lots where the house and barn were.
The courageous homesteading and hard work of Val, which in turn have all developed and contributed to many more families. The number of their descendants is now (Nov. 2000) 134 people, including 18 grand children, 43 great grand children and 65 great great grand children.
It was during the first year of their marriage, when they were living in Wetaskiwin, that the influenza epidemic that had spread through Asia and Europe reached Canada by way of troop ships bringing soldiers’ home after the First World War. Florence and Jack both became very ill with the ‘flu, so Florence’s mother, Maude, came from Lacombe to look after them, probably travelling by train. Florence and Jack recovered and Maude, who in spite of her small size (85 lb.) was very healthy, did not catch the dreaded disease. They were indeed fortunate, as the ‘flu epidemic took 20 million lives worldwide, 50,000 of them in Canada, almost as many lives as Canada lost in the war.
Grande Prairie 1920-1926
The years in Grande Prairie, where Jack was transferred by AGT in 1920, were very busy years for Florence. Grande Prairie was a small town, with a population of no more than 300-350, but there was a hospital where three daughters were born: Lucille Mary on April 25, 1921; Margaret Theresa on July 31, 1922; and Elizabeth Eileen (Betty) on June 1, 1924. Florence learned how to curl; a game she came to love and continued to play into her 60s. She was a charter member of the Aurora Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, an involvement that provided an introduction to new friends in each town in which they lived. Jack’s parents and his sister, Effie, had followed them to Grande Prairie, and provided additional support to the young family.
Jack was in charge of a crew of men who were constructing a telephone line between Grande Prairie and Peace River, and so was away from home for long periods with no way to communicate with his wife. Florence recounted one particularly anxious time when Jack had been gone longer than she expected. While walking past the train station one day Florence decided, on the spur of the moment, to see if by any chance he had been working close to the track, and had been able to send a message. Miraculously, or so it seemed to her, there was a telegram from Jack telling her that all was well.
Taber 1926-1941
In 1926 Jack was transferred to Taber, 700 miles south of Grande Prairie, and had to go on ahead of the family. Florence remembered very clearly making the 24-hour train trip from Grande Prairie to Edmonton and then on to her parents’ farm outside Lacombe with three little girls and pregnant with her fourth child. (When Florence was in her seventies she flew from Edmonton to Grande Prairie for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Aurora Chapter, O.E.S., a journey that took 45 minutes. On the way to the airport she wondered at the miracle of modern technology that it now took 45 minutes for a trip that was once a very long 24 hours.)
Florence and her daughters stayed on the farm with Maude, Val, and young Maudie, now almost 16. On May 1, 1926, William Kent McPhee was born in the town of Lacombe. Later in the spring, Florence, now 28 years old, completed her train journey to Taber with her three little girls and her baby son.
Florence had always lived in the northern half of the province, where the land was treed, the soil was dark and rich, and where snow, rain, and sun provided ideal growing conditions. One can only imagine her dismay as she traveled farther and farther south and then east to find a flat land devoid of trees, where you could see forever in any direction, and where the dry wind blew constantly from the west. But at least the young family was together once more.
For some time Florence was very busy caring for her family, especially since a second son, John Alexander, was born at home on January 4, 1928, much to the delight of the older children. There was always a "hired girl" who came in after school and provided an extra pair of hands to help with the five. (One of the girls the family remembers was petite Doris Longdon, the younger sister of jockey Johnny Longdon, whose family lived nearby.) In July of 1930 Florence received a much needed break when she travelled by train to Lacombe for her sister Jessie’s wedding, taking John (2 1/2) and Betty (6) with her, and leaving the rest of the family with a housekeeper.
In 1931 or 1932 Florence and Jack purchased a cottage on the western edge of town. Their home was surrounded by prairie on three sides; half a block to the north was a single row of six or seven houses. The thirties brought drought to the prairies. Huge clouds of dust rolled in on strong west or northwest winds, filling the ditches with topsoil from miles away, blowing the tumbleweeds across the prairies, and howling around the corners of the house. Towels soaked with water were placed on the windowsills to stop the dust, but made little difference. But there were also beautiful, sunny, wind-free days, gorgeous sunsets, and the songs of the meadowlarks that nested in the grass. The prairies have their own particular beauty.
Florence was determined to turn their large yard into an oasis for the family in the middle of this desert, and demonstrated her ingenuity and creativity in making it happen. Jack set up a swing in the back yard, a very tall swing, made with telephone poles! Jack and Florence worked together to plant a windbreak along the north side of the property. Jack built a six-foot board fence to shelter Florence’s flower garden from the west wind and also from errant golf balls, since the prairie golf course bordered two sides of the property. They planted a lawn and shade trees, and the children spent the hot summer days running through the sprinkler on the lawn, not realizing at the time that their lawn was the only one around.
Most amazing of all was the lily pond. Jack dug the hole and had it cemented in. During the summer Florence had beautiful water lilies floating on her pool and goldfish swimming about. Mignonette lined the stone steps approaching the pool, which was surrounded by rockroses, iris and daisies. Behind the daisies were stock and snapdragon. (This is taken from Florence’s description of her garden.) Keeping the flower garden and the trees alive was a challenge. There were cold and hot water taps in the kitchen of their house but no plumbing to carry away wastewater. All water from the kitchen sink was directed to the windbreak through a rubber pipe that Jack laid under his driveway. In the summer, bath water from the big tin tub that had to be set up in the kitchen, was carried out, bucket by bucket, to water the flowers. In retrospect, what Florence and Jack created was a credit to their determination and industry as well as to Florence’s creativity and ingenuity.
During the winter afternoons, Florence enjoyed curling with her friends, and continued her association with the Eastern Star. The Masonic Lodge held regular card parties and dances, which both Jack and Florence enjoyed. Florence took a landscaping course by correspondence, and took great pleasure in creating designs that she could use in her yard. She now had an electric sewing machine and made clothes for her daughters, including suits, coats, and party dresses. This continued until their late teens, while at the same time Florence was teaching them how to sew. She particularly loved the challenge of taking apart an adult’s worn suit or coat, turning the material, and making a new coat or skirt for a child with the unworn side out. Florence would not have thought this extraordinary; that is what women did during the depression.
Florence enjoyed singing with the church choir, where she was often given a solo part. As she recognized musical or artistic talent in her children, she encouraged it. Lucille, who inherited her mother’s fine soprano voice, had singing lessons. Betty took dancing lessons from a teacher who traveled from Lethbridge every week, and Florence accompanied the classes on the piano.
Florence, who had grown up with many family members nearby, missed those family connections more and more as the years in Taber went by. Long distance calls by telephone just to visit were unheard of during the depression; communication between the sisters, their parents, grandparents and other relatives was strictly by letter. Every month or so Florence would receive an envelope bulging with letters from various family members; it would take the better part of a day just to read them all. Then she would write her own letter, add it to the collection, and forward them all to the next person on the list. The day the mail packet came was a happy day for Florence.
Every few years the sisters would plan to have a family gathering at the farm. Jack, Florence, and the five would take a full day to drive over the gravel roads to Lacombe, starting early in the morning and arriving twelve hours later, with the car windows rolled down so all could inhale the fresh smell of the evergreen trees. They were always just in time for supper, which could be chicken soup with Grandma’s homemade noodles. Only once was it possible for all the sisters and their families to gather at the same time, as distances were great and roads could be impassable. But they could always be sure that the large envelope bulging with the collected letters would eventually arrive, and that would be their visit.
One summer, probably in 1932 or 1933, Florence and Jack, with their five and a friend of Betty’s, made a memorable trip by car, a Whippet 6, pulling a four-wheeled trailer to camp at Waterton Lakes. This was no doubt Florence’s project, since she loved the trees, the mountains, and outdoor life so much and wanted all the family to experience it. As they drove into the higher elevations the Whippet became balky, but Jack coaxed it along, and eventually they made it. Bill, about six years old at the time, remembers that he and his younger brother, John, were in the car with their Dad one day when he dropped Mother off at the beginning of a path up a mountain. Florence wanted to walk, and headed up the path by herself. Two hours later Jack and the boys came back to pick her up. As they waited, a bear ambled down the path. John started to cry, afraid that the bear had eaten his mother. Jack had a time trying to calm his son, and, while he was wondering what he should do next, Florence arrived, walking calmly down the path. She hadn’t seen the bear, nor, fortunately, had the bear seen her, so all was well.
In 1934, Florence drove with her parents, Maude and Val, in their 1926 Oldsmobile to visit Helen, whose husband, Frank, was a mountain guide and hunter. To reach the small cabin where they lived with their young daughter, Maude, Val, and Florence drove along the Banff-Windermere highway, then down the Settlers’ Road for eight miles. At this point they stopped the car beside the Kootenay River and honked the horn several times, to announce their arrival. The cabin was on the other side of the river. Frank then walked down to the river and took the visitors across it by way of a homemade, hand operated cable car riding ninety feet above the water. The seat of the cable car was 24 inches across with a two-by-four board at each side. There was no back to lean against. Completely undaunted by the experience, Florence and her parents then walked three-quarters of a mile uphill to the cabin. When it was time to go home, they rode on the cable car back across the river to their parked car. Florence thoroughly enjoyed her time in the mountains with her sister and her parents.
There were few family visitors to Taber during the 15 years Jack and Florence lived there. Probably the most exciting was the time Florence’s parents, Maude and Val, came in 1928 or 1929. They were on their way from Lacombe to Nebraska, (or on their way home), the only time Maude and Val were to make the trip since they emigrated in 1899. Val was driving his 1926 Oldsmobile sedan with seats that folded down to make a bed. They took food with them, and slept in the car most of the time. There were no motels then, but there could have been the odd hotel and store on the way. It would have taken more than a week to drive one way (not counting their stop at Taber), considering that they traveled on many dirt roads and, of course, sometimes it rained. (There are no written records of this trip, so no details are available.) Their visit to Taber was quite an occasion, as it was the only time their grandparents were to visit the McPhee children. Jessie and her husband, Ken, visited once or twice when they were living at Raymond in southern Alberta, and Maudie, now a young lady who worked in a bank in a small town east of Edmonton, came once on her holidays. Not much travelling was done in those days.
Drumheller 1941-1952
In the spring of 1941 Jack received the last transfer of his long career, this time as District Manager for AGT at Drumheller, 90 miles northeast of Calgary. He had to move to his new position ahead of Florence and the family, who stayed on in Taber, Florence packing while the students finished school. Florence was ready to leave the prairies and live in a green river-valley, even though she had to leave her lily pond behind. On July 1, 1941, Florence and the children took the train from Taber to Drumheller, and the family was reunited once more.
Life was different in Drumheller. It was a busy coal-mining town of over 3000, situated in the Red Deer River valley. There was an ample supply of water, so everyone had a lawn and a garden, and, what seemed a minor miracle, there were trees everywhere. But there was one aspect that was a challenge. Their Taber home had been heated by natural gas, while Drumheller, at that time, had many mines operating 24 hours a day, since coal was in great demand during the Second World War. So, of course, natural gas had not yet been brought into the town, and all homes and business buildings were heated by coal. For Jack, this meant shoveling coal into the hungry furnace, banking the fire each cold winter night, and spending Saturday morning carrying out the ashes. For Florence, it meant dealing with a film of coal dust throughout the house on the day the coal truck sent two tons of coal down the chute into their basement.
Florence and Jack finally found the house they wanted to buy. All five children were living at home, so a large, two-story home was needed. These were changing and busy times for Florence, as the three girls were soon married. Lucille and Jim Hunter were married at her parents’ home on November 20, 1943; Betty and Don Campbell were married in Calgary on September 15, 1945; and Margaret married Andy Stevenson at home on March 21, 1946. The boys finished school, went away to work, and didn’t live in Drumheller again. Special occasions brought children and grandchildren to the house that was suddenly too large for Florence and Jack.
Florence took the train to Chilliwack, B.C. for John and Rena’s wedding on June 24, 1950. Florence’s parents, Maude and Val, had sold the farm at Lacombe in 1945 and had moved to Chilliwack, so Florence was able to see them, as well. (Val had actually driven his 1926 Oldsmobile over the mountains to Chilliwack!) Bill and Irene were married in Edmonton on September 15, 1951, the year Jack turned 65 and was due to retire. However, he stayed on one more year at the request of AGT and in 1952 officially retired. Jack and Florence then joined other family members in Chilliwack.
Retirement 1952-1958
At first Florence and Jack lived just outside Chilliwack and raised chickens, but that proved to be more work than they wanted. They then moved into town where they were able to enjoy their retirement and spend more time with Val and Maude, son John, his wife, Rena, and their family as well as Florence’s sister, Ethel, and her family.
All went well until February 1956, when Florence was in Kamloops with Betty and Don Campbell, their two young children and new baby. Jack suffered a heart attack, but was able to dial son John’s number before losing consciousness. John, knowing somehow that it was his Dad calling and that he was in trouble, called an ambulance before driving to his Dad’s house, no doubt saving his life. It was a long recovery, and Jack was never completely well again. In 1957, Florence organized their return to Lacombe, taking Maude and Val with them. For a time, Jack and Florence, Maude and Val lived together in a big house, but it wasn’t long before Maude and Val had to move into a nursing home in Calgary, as there was no appropriate facility in Lacombe at that time.
On August 29, 1958, all the children and grandchildren as well as Jack’s two sisters from Chicago gathered to celebrate Jack’s 72nd birthday. It was a very happy gathering and a time that they always remembered. Just weeks later, on Saturday, October 5, after staying up later than Florence to watch his favorite television program, Hockey Night in Canada, Jack suffered another heart attack as he sat on the side of his bed. Evidently he died instantly, falling back on the bed, where Florence found him in the morning.
When Jack died, Florence was a very healthy 60-year-old. In fact, she remained healthy almost until her death, 31 years later. Florence had never undergone surgery and had had no major illness since the 1919 ‘flu. She and her sisters were pioneers in healthy eating and living, and, except for Ethel who died of cancer at 54, they lived very long lives. Florence’s mind was very clear and sharp, and remained so all her life. Florence realized she most likely had many years ahead as a widow, and talked about it briefly. Then, after spending a few months in Kamloops with Betty and Don and their family, she returned to Lacombe, determined to make the most of her life.
Renovations to the large house resulted in a suite that could be rented out, providing income. Although Florence, like many women of her generation, had little opportunity to practice financial management, she learned to manage her own affairs very capably, and to deal with bank personnel, her lawyer, and other business people. She focused on maintaining an active social life through the Eastern Star, the Garden Club, Lacombe Seniors, and her bridge club and church groups. Like her sisters, Florence had artistic and creative talents, and loved activities that allowed her to use her hands and her expert eye and color sense. She took classes in flower arranging, basket weaving and pottery. She bought a small loom and learned how to weave, making articles that members of her family still treasure. Florence made beautiful beeswax candles as gifts for family and friends. She reupholstered favorite chairs and spent afternoons quilting with her friends. When there was a tea or social gathering, it was Florence who spent hours making floral centerpieces for the tables. It was a labor of love.
Nothing was more satisfying to Florence than her flower garden, the carefully planned borders and her rock garden. At one time she had 2,000 tulip bulbs and hundreds of gladioli that she grew each year. On occasion, Florence was asked to speak to the Garden Club members about a particular aspect of her gardening, which she considered an honor and carried out with confidence. For several months Florence traveled 20 miles by bus to Ponoka, a small town, to work in a florist’s shop. Florence often said that, if she had had the opportunity as a young woman, she would have loved to work with flowers, in a greenhouse or in a florist’s shop. Florence was also pleased and proud to see that some of her granddaughters had inherited her eye for design and color, her talent for sewing and working with her hands at various crafts, her love of gardening, and her love of music and dance.
Florence made regular visits to see her five children and their families, took part in family celebrations and went on trips with each family. She particularly enjoyed going to Banff and also driving through the mountains to the West Coast. One year she and her sister, Jessie, went on a trip by car to Toronto and then down to Chicago to visit relatives. On another occasion Florence made her first flight in a plane to Tuscon, Arizona to spend some time with Jessie and Ken at their winter home.
There were many happy family times and trips, but also sad and difficult times to be faced without Jack, her partner for 39 years. Florence’s parents, Maude and Val Redig, outlived Jack; they both died in 1960, as did Florence’s younger sister, Ethel. Most difficult to deal with were the death of Florence and Jack’s youngest child and second son, John, in 1984, and the deaths of three of their grandchildren, Morris Stevenson in 1968, Shirley McPhee in 1984, and Rick Campbell in 1989.
After living by herself in Lacombe for 15 years, Florence said that she was restless, and wanted a change. In 1973, at the age of 75, she sold her house in Lacombe, moved to Chilliwack once more, and bought another house. Three years later she moved to Edmonton, stayed for two years, and then moved back to Lacombe, finally settling in Cameron Lodge. Wherever she lived, Florence made another flower garden, and, as long as she was able, a rock garden. Only in her last year was she unable to plant her flowers. But the purple pansies she loved had seeded themselves, and bloomed all summer long.
During the night of August 4-5, 1989, Florence died quietly in her sleep, one cheek resting on the palm of her hand. She had lived 91 years and 5 months. The previous evening she had had a long conversation by phone with Jessie, the sister next to her in age, and the one to whom she was closest. Independent to the end of her life, she had been able to live on her own with some housekeeping and personal assistance. Florence’s mind remained sharp; she managed her own financial affairs and did her own banking and shopping. She was living in the town where she had grown up, where she had met her husband and where she felt very close to the land that she loved.
Florence and Jack are buried side by side in the Lacombe Cemetery, which at one time adjoined the Redig homestead. A few steps along are the headstones of Florence’s parents, Val and Maude Redig. The graves of Florence’s maternal grandparents, Eliza and Arthur Kent, are located a short distance away.
In tiny St. Cyprian’s Anglican Church, Lacombe, attended by Florence since childhood, a beautiful stained-glass window is dedicated by their family to the memory of
Florence Redig McPhee, March 4, 1898 - August 5, 1989 and John William McPhee, August 29, 1886 - October 5, 1958. The design chosen by the family is that of Ruth the Gleaner, carrying a sheaf of grain in her arms. In the background are the beloved rural fields and countryside.
Jessie attended the Olds School of Agriculture in Alberta and graduated in 1922 with a
diploma in Home Economics. She then continued her studies at the University of Alberta and graduated in 1926 with a B.Sc. in HE (Home economics). Later in the late 1940s she took several summer school classes at the University of Alberta in Edmonton for her teaching certificate. She was an adventurous lady; playing hockey (goalie at times), horse back riding as well as racing horses with the natives and cowboys. Jessie also played the violin in the school orchestra. She became a schoolteacher at the age of seventeen and first taught in the Peace River County in the summer to a class of forty students. The next year she taught in Taber where she meet Ken in the orchestra. She often taught in schools for Native Canadians who were good students, including those near Sundry and Frog Lake.
Jessie married Ken Walker in 1930, another teacher at the Raymond School of Agriculture. Ken's instrument was the clarinet. Ken was an agriculturist (B.Sc.Ag, 1928 and later an M.Sc. in peat soils and fertilisation in 1934 at U. of Alberta). He played football and stayed at St. Joesph's College while at University. The couple lived in Raymond, Alberta for a few years, where Jessie taught cooking and sewing. She had Paul, their first child, who was born in Raymond in 1931, Douglas in Edmonton in 1932, Patricia in 1934 and John in Stettler in 1937.
Ken and Jessie's wedding, July 15, 1930.
Ken was an implement dealer in Stettler for 3 years, then they moved to remote Youngstown in the winter of 1939
where he was the district agriculturist for 13 years. Here he traveled throughout his large district to meet and guide the farmers and the 4H clubs. They lived on a small farm near the Special Areas #5 facilities for road equipment. They had a comfortable two-story home with a large garden and two barns. Ken raised chickens, a few hogs, cows and horses, while Jessie had about 200 mink a few fox and some chinchillas in a small house with a shop. They also had a horse and a stubborn Shetland pony for the children to ride (Doug is on the pony with Paul and Pat).
Lucille McPhee was the nanny for the first year or so as Jessie was teaching at the local school in Youngstown. Everyone worked on the farm looking after the animals and the garden. The children helped milk the cows and sold the milk to customers on the way to school each morning. There was also an icehouse on the farm, which provided plenty of ice during the summer for a refrigerator, and for making ice cream. Ken put together a wind powered electric system with large batteries in 1945 for lights for the house. The country and nearby town were a delightful place for the children to grow up as they were free to roam all over the farm, countryside and the nearby shops for the road machinery. Paul cycled many miles up and down the highway collecting beer bottles for extra money. A slough beside the farm generally had enough water in the springtime to float rafts which were much fun to play on.
The family moved to Strathmore and a home in the Western Irrigation District's (WID) facilities in 1950. Ken continued as the district agriculturist and Jessie taught on the reserves at Turner Valley, Carbon and then Gleichen and also raised chinchillas. One Sunday while returning to Carbon she got stuck in the snow and the Hutterites rescued her. Doug and John had a woodworking shop and bunks in the chinchilla house. John went through three motorcycles
wh
ile in high school and loved to fly up
and down the highway. He also worked in the nearby orchard for the WID for
several summers. He was in charge of the Lion's swimming pool and the instructor
and lifeguard for the summer of 1954. He then worked for COMINCO in Calgary for
the following two summers.
Ken and Jessie were Paul, John, Pat and Doug Walker in Strathmore- about 1952
keen on
their children getting the best education possible. Both Doug and Pat attended
the University of Alberta obtaining degrees in chemical engineering and
education respectively. Doug joined the Officer Training program while at
University and learned to fly Harvards at Trenton, 
Ontario. John first attended Mount Royal College in Calgary for a year and then the University of Saskatchewan to get his B.Sc. (Eng. Physics, 1960 ) and later M.Sc. (1962). He inherited Doug's Triumph Mayflower car in 1958 when Doug moved to Ontario and later drove it to Saskatoon. It was very cantankerous car and eventually died and he then bought a new Ford Falcon in 1961. Jesse was always interested in sporty cars and first had a Volkswagen Carmen Ghia and then a blue Rambler Marlin, which eventually John acquired so she could buy a newer white Marlin.
After Ken retired they moved into a larger home formerly owned by a doctor in Strathmore. The sizeable garden again produced many vegetables and flowers for friends and neighbours. Ken became a certified appraiser and practised for several years when they bought a trailer-home in Calgary for their summers. They also had one in Tucson, Arizona, which they used for 14 winters. Jessie took up oil painting and captured many beautiful scenes of the nearby desert and mountains. In 1978 they left Calgary and moved to Penticton, B.C. and lived at 289 Windsor Ave. There Ken kept another splendid garden and was a member of the Penticton Garden Club and the Masons. He curled, bowled and golfed there for many years. Jessie raised blue ribbon Boston Bull Terrier dogs and painted numerous portraits - her favorite one was " Old Man with a Pipe" and some of her grandchildren. She also enjoyed sewing, weaving, crocheting and sketching. Jessie passed away in April 1991 and Ken just a few years later in December 1994. They are both buried in Penticton B.C. overlooking Lake Okanagan.
Ken and Jessie Walker - about 1970.
Paul worked for many years on the CN and CP railways in Alberta and B.C. and retired in Penticton where he has many friends. Paul enjoys travelling and often visits friends in Calgary, Princeton and occasionally in New Zealand. Pat completed her B.Ed. at the University of Alberta in 1958. She taught at numerous places including Banff, Kitimat, Cold Lake, West Germany, British Guyana and recently at Canberra, Australia. She retired in 1998 and has travelled extensively and returns to North America nearly ever year to visit friends and relatives.
Doug worked in Valleyfield near Montreal were he met a Scottish nurse, Elizabeth Hamill, in march 1958. They later were married at the Presbyterian Church in Mount Royal, PQ, October 31, 1960. They first lived in Kitchener then
moved to Brampton about 1962 and later moved into Toronto where Doug worked for an insurance company. Doug enjoyed an extensive workshop and large garden in their new home on Cleethorpes Blvd. in Scarborough. He made a lovely home and a fine dinning table and four chairs for his parents.
Doug also curled and enjoyed swimming, sailing and golf. Doug and Liz liked to travel and often visited friends and relatives out west and in Scotland and had numerous vacations in the Caribbean. He passed away on Nov. 11, 1997 and was a great loss to his loving wife.
John met Violet Leinweber, a new teacher in Strathmore in 1957, who was from Acme, Alberta. He later married her in August 1960. They lived in Saskatoon for two years while John finished his M.Sc. and then they moved to Ottawa where John worked at the Geophysical Observatory for the Federal Dept. of Energy, Mines and Resources. They had two girls while in Ottawa; Annette (1962) and Sherry (1964). Burl and Lyle were born in Edmonton (Twins: Dec. 1968) while John was working on his Ph.D. in space physics. The family returned to Ottawa in 1970. Both Lyle and Burl enjoyed playing hockey like their grandmother Jessie Walker.
Eileen and Bruce Hannah and son Miles, John and Vi Walker, Murray Alary, Andy Norlander and flower girls Ruth and Beccie Leinweber, August 20, 1960.
She had finished tenth grade, then completed enough training at the business school to venture out on her own. She was still sixteen years old when she went to work at a real estate office in Killam, Alberta for eight or nine months. From there, she went to work at the old Merchant’s Bank of Canada in the town of Alliance in Alberta. She was twenty years old when she moved to Seattle for about two years. It may have been at that time that she took a car trip to California with two other girls and a man who was a relative. He had previously taught her to drive. The car didn't go much over forty miles per hour comfortably but she had it up to fifty miles in order to pass another vehicle. It took them four days to get to California.
When Helen first moved to Seattle, she lived with her Aunt Ethel Thomson who was pregnant. Helen helped her Aunt for three weeks until Val Thomson was born. Her new job involved using a typewriter, an adding machine and sending checks to a clearinghouse. She shared an apartment with Mary Ince, her second cousin, and the daughter of Theo and Jessie. Theo was the son of Auntie Darling. (See the picture of the house in which he was born, Springfield Ill.)
It was two years before Helen moved from Seattle to a place called Penhold, near Calgary, where she worked in the Bank of Montreal for three years. She then moved to Calgary where she worked for eighteen months before marrying Frank Richter. He was born in Germany into a wealthy family; his father was a medical doctor, and was very kind to Frank and his new family. Frank had been drafted into the German army when he was just seventeen years old. It was World War I, (1914 -1918) and he served for two years and seven months. He was wounded three times, a knee injury, a stomach injury and a neck and head injury from shrapnel; the wounds affected him the rest of his life. Before they were married, he spent one winter by himself on the Kootenay property.
In 1930 Frank and Helen moved to a small cabin on the property in the beautiful Kootenay area of British Colombia, where they would live for fifteen years except for the times that Helen was away for the births of her children. There was no electricity and the water had to be carried quite a distance up the hill to the cabin. At that time, there was just one large room (twenty by twenty four feet) in the cabin. A double bed, a table, two or three old wooden chairs and two benches were the extent of their furniture. An old trapper, who lived a couple of miles away, built some shelves behind the cabin door where Helen could store a few of her kitchen things. There was just one little cupboard, no counter-top, or drawers, only a couple of nails to hang a potato masher and an eggbeater. She washed her dishes in a dishpan on the table, with the water that she carried up the hill, and heated on the wood-burning stove. The firebox was partly burned out; when she baked her bread and buns, some of the ashes fell into the oven and onto the bread. Later, a better stove and a good floor were installed in the little home.
Frank' s father, in Germany, sent two hundred dollars every three months, until Hitler came to power in 1934. He would not permit money to be sent out of the country. From Germany also, came some mattresses and white pine furniture, a dresser and a buffet, which the family used for fourteen years.
In 1930, Frank's sister and father came from Germany to visit. Helen was three months pregnant and climbed with Frank and the others up one of the nearby mountains. When coming down, she had to sit and slide down carefully so that she would not fall. The visitors came again in 1938.
Helen was an enthusiastic gardener, growing peas, carrots and cabbage, "It was not a picnic" she said. They ate what they grew and brought onions, potatoes, and rice from the little town. In later years, she did a lot of canning of berries and vegetables. The land was too rocky and the soil too shallow to grow large potatoes; often the deer ate the carrot tops in the spring. Frank plowed a large field, grew alfalfa and oats and used a scythe to cut the crops one or two years until he was able to buy a mower. He had to stack the hay in stooks to dry it, then pitch it onto the stone boat (a heavy large sled pulled by horses) and haul it to the barn and pitch into the mow (with a pitch fork). It was a good barn (was there when they came) with room for three cows and a place for chickens. The cows and chickens had been brought across the river on the cable, the cows with ropes around their bellies and their feet hanging down over the water. The horses came later in June and July when the water was low. Helen said that she forded the river once, on a horse; the water was up to the "arm pits" of the horses; the river was wider than one hundred twenty-five feet and the bottom was very rocky.
Their meat mostly came from the game that Frank hunted, usually it was from white tailed deer. One time he had to go very high up the mountain to get a black tailed deer. There were months when they went ten days without red meat to eat. Frank trapped and sold furs in the wintertime; for a few summers, he guided hunting parties. In 1936 and 1937, he led into the mountains, two men from Texas and helped them achieve their goal, to bring back trophies which they could take home for display. They left the meat for Frank's family to consume. Sanda was about six and Diana about three years old.
While Helen was with her parents in Lacombe, at the time of Sanda's birth, Frank was building a larger log home; it had a few unfinished rooms which provided sleeping area in the summer time for visitors. The house had openings for the windows, but no glass and the family lived in the smaller enclosed part of the original cabin, which was shut off with doors. Lumber was too expensive and difficult to get across the river, thus the larger part of the cabin was never finished. Later, Frank and a helper moved a trapper's shack one-and-a-half miles, and joined it to the house. He and the trapper numbered each log and were able to put it back together properly.
Late one June night, Helen and thirteen-month-old Sanda were being pulled across the river on the cable car when it became stuck. Frank and two other men worked for three long hours to repair it. Helen and Sanda sat in the dark, very tired, hungry, cold and frightened. The mother sang to her child to keep her calm. It was ninety feet down to the river, and Frank and the men worked frantically. Finally, at one o'clock in the morning the cable car moved; mother and child were at last safely on solid ground. It was not like the modem chair lifts today, but made by trappers many years ago. The seat, made from planks, was about two feet wide, enough space for two people to sit. There was a two-by-four board at each side but nothing to lean your back against. It was like sitting on a swing, but it took a strong man to pull a person across the river. When Jessie came to visit, she had to wear a blindfold before she would attempt the crossing.
In 1934, Helen had been living in the Kootenay less than four years, when her parents and sister, Florence, came to visit. They were not entirely unexpected, but it was sort of a surprise. It took a long time to get mail; sometimes it was a couple of months for a letter to reach them because they had to cross the river on the cable and make the trip out of the Kootenay whenever they wanted their mail or some groceries. Frank kept an old De Soto car on the other side of the river, which they used when going to one of the, towns or to Lacombe. Helen said that she seldom went to town. At the time her visitors came, she was pregnant with her second child, Diana and had employed a woman, Mrs. Richardson, to help with the work. It was just a few weeks before birth and there were a goodly number of chickens to care for and water to haul up the hill. Mrs. Richardson, (later to become Helen's mother-in-law) worked for twelve dollars a month. She was first offered ten dollars but said; "Make it twelve and I'll come". She was worth it! She hauled the water, fixed the fire, washed the clothes on a board, and ironed, Sanda was three years old at the time.
Helen and Mrs. Richardson were out a little way from the house, picking wild strawberries when they heard the " toot toot " of Valentine's 1926 Oldsmobile. Frank went down and brought them across the river on the cable. At the time of this visit, Maude was now in her early sixties; the cable ride didn't seem to bother her. After the cable crossing, there was a three-quarter-mile up-hill hike to reach the cabin. It was July when they came and the beauty of the surrounding countryside was worth the effort. Typical, Valentine busied himself, he repaired the stove, made its door so that it closed properly, and made a new firebox out of an old gas or oil can.
Mrs. Richardson had left earlier and it was time for the Redigs and Florence to go home. Frank took Helen out also, in order to be near a hospital for the birth. As soon as the good-byes were said, both cars across the river started travelling on the Settler’s Road, the eight miles to the highway, the Banff-Windermere Highway. When they reached the highway, Val, Maude and Florence drove toward Banff, Frank and Helen drove toward Invermere. About ten miles down the road, Valentine's car developed trouble and they had to stop. Florence had teenagers and a husband waiting at home; she flagged a car and caught a ride into Banff where she could get transportation to her home. Valentine and Maude limped their car back to the Kootenay. They had to send out for the parts for their car, which took two weeks. Boots was born at the hospital in Invermere. Helen stayed in the hospital ten days, then, with friends travelled back to the Kootenay. Boots was about two weeks old then.
In March of 1939 Sanda, Helen, Frank and the new baby, Karl, were returning to the Kootenay from the Redigs' home, when Sanda contracted double pneumonia. She was in the Holy Cross Hospital in Calgary for three months and at one time was strapped down and confined in an oxygen tent. The experience for Sanda was very traumatic. She had her eighth birthday in the hospital and has said that she will never forget that time in her life. Frank, Helen, Boots and baby Karl stayed in a hotel nearby so they could be with Sanda as much as possible. During this time, Jessie came from Raymond to visit Helen and the two sisters decided to go to a movie. Helen believes this is where she caught scarlet fever and was confined in the isolation Hospital in Calgary. Her Uncle Alf Kent and his wife Agnes lived in Calgary; fortunately, she was able to care for Karl. Helen was in the hospital for the last month of Sanda's stay there in the hospital. Frank took Boots back to the Kootenay. Sanda was released a week before Helen; a kind woman-friend of Helen's, living on a small farm near Calgary, cared for the still weak girl. The woman fixed her garage up so that Helen could stay there in further isolation for ten days after she was released. The doctors insisted on this procedure because they feared that Sanda, in her weakened condition, could be re-infected somehow by her mother. At the end of the ten days, Helen and Sanda collected Karl from Agnes and they were all finally able to return to their Kootenay home. It was now the month of July.
During World War II, (1939 - 1945) the Canadian government took Frank from his family because of his recent immigrant status. He was held in a camp along with many other German immigrants for about two years. They were first confined at Kananaskis, Alberta, then taken to Sudbury, Ontario and finally moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick. Helen and her children were alone for at least four months, no provisions were made for them by the government during that time. Karl, the youngest child, was just a year old. The horses, (about ten) had been given to an old trapper, a friend of Frank's and Helen's, to look after. The cow was shot and the meat was given to the meat market owner. They left the chickens. The family was given no recompense except for an eighty-three dollar check when Frank was finally released. Fortunately, it was summer time, and Helen and her Children were able to survive with their garden produce, eggs and milk from the one cow they still had. Otherwise, there was very little to eat and no one to help should an emergency arise, except perhaps a trapper a few miles away. Finally, the government moved them to a little house on the outskirts of a small town called Windermere. Helen brought the canned food she had put up during the summer. Fortunately, Mrs. Richardson's, son, Tom, helped as much as he could. Life was better, but still very difficult for Helen and her three children. Near the end of his second year, Frank required medical treatment and was taken to a hospital in Montreal. Some of the German men at the camp collected money so Helen could visit Frank. She took Karl who was now three years old, with her. Boots, then eight years old and Sanda eleven years old, stayed with friends. Frank gave Helen the name of a man in one of the Canadian Parliament Buildings who could possibly help Frank in obtaining an early release from the compound. Helen was successful and Frank came home in 1942 after two years of confinement.
The family lived in the little house in Windermere for a year and moved to a place in the country for another year. In 1944, they moved back to their Kootenay home taking with them ten cows and a bull. On horseback, Sanda, thirteen years and Diana helped with the cattle, fording the river and settling them on the new farm. In Sept. 1945, Helen and the children left the Kootenay to get the children to school in Invermere. She worked as a cook at the hospital for a few months, then in the Christmas tree yard and later in a coffee shop. She took food to Frank who was staying out at the old home so he could feed the cattle. During April 1946, they sold the Kootenay place and purchased a farm four miles from Invermere.
They lived on the Invermere farm for seven years and at one time had a herd of seventy-three whiteface beef cattle. As the calves came, the children made pets of them; every animal became friendly and tame.
Summer 1948 Arthur and Ethel Northgraves and their four children were visiting the Ricthers, having a great time riding horses, picking wild strawberries, and swimming at Fairmont Hot Springs. Sanda lived with the Northgraves in Chilliwack and attended high school for a year after which she did live-in childcare until she went back to Invermere, met and married Joe Taylor in 1952. Joe and Sanda worked very hard and were very successful growing and selling garden produce; many people wanted their fresh vegetables and fruits. Harvesting and selling Christmas trees during fall and into wintertime was another successful enterprise. Later Joe included landscaping as a sideline.
By 1953, things still were not working out at the Invermere farm for Helen. She and son Karl then fourteen years old lived with Sanda and Joe for a month, before going to Penticton. Helen worked there in a cannery for six months. During Thanksgiving, she travelled to visit her sister, Ethel, in Chilliwack, who encouraged her to stay. Helen took over the care of Maude and Val for three months to give Ethel a much needed break. Karl went back to Invermere, but stayed only three weeks. Helen found work at the army camp in Sardis, not far from Chilliwack, doing payroll and secretarial work for $150.00 a month, which seemed like a lot of money then. Ethel resumed the care of the Redigs and was able to go back to her own home evenings when Helen got off work. In January 1954, with Valentine's help, Helen was able to finance a house in Sardis and provide a home for Karl who had been living with Don and Margaret Northgraves. Boots had been living in Invennere; she also came to live with Helen. Edna, a young friend of Helen's from work, boarded there for fifty dollars a month. Boots did child care at first but soon was able to get waitress work at the officers' mess which paid one hundred fifty-five dollars a month. She was in the world of work and learned a lot.
Helen's work went well and by 1956 she was given a promotion to class three and transferred to Northern B.C. at Fort Nelson, a very cold place to live, near the Yukon border. In October 1956, Helen left Fort Nelson and went to Kamloops, and in Feb. 1958, she joined the Navy Dept. of the National Defense in Kamloops. She bought a house and Boots and Karl came to live with her. At this time, Val and Maude were in the nursing home in Calgary and Valentine was not very well. Ethel had just been blessed with a new grandchild. In a letter to Ethel, Helen describes a few of the things going on in her life. "I meant to write before this and congratulate Norma and Norm (Beer) on their big boy, wasn't it a whopper though, for a little thing like Norma. So glad he is doing fine, also the other babies, you have beaten me by a long shot, you with eight grandchildren and me with a little only two. I have been back from holidays and working now for three weeks. Sanda and family are just fine, kids growing and the new house is nice and comfy and handy, sure glad they are in there for the winter. They got a nice milk cow when we were there, so they will have plenty for kids and Joe to drink (he is a regular calf) and can sell cream or milk if they like. She cost almost $200 and is a dandy, real big, mostly black, some white and very gentle. In addition in town, at least it didn't stay, but out here in the hills, it was all white, but is gradually going this afternoon, rained in town all night.
Must close now and get ready to go home, Monday is a holiday. We had a turkey dinner here yesterday, at noon, free, from the Canteen fund, we will have another at Xmas I think, usually 2 or 3 a year. Have been taking big bouquets of dark rose asters home on week ends, they have beautiful flowers out here and now they will soon be gone, seems too bad to see them all bent over with the snow and no one picking them. I also have a bouquet in the office. So long and write again- soon, nice to hear all the news. Love to all, Helen.
Life was a series of moves for Helen and her loved ones for some time, Boots married Fred, Tom got a job at Merritt, during May 1960, they all moved to Creston where they stayed until 1961. Then, Boots and Fred bought property in Yahk, one hundred and twenty acres of rather forested and rocky land. It was very beautiful country with few other people dwelling nearby. The plan was to develop some of the property into a campground. Tom built a small two-room house there and Boots and Fred lived in the other older house that was already on the place. Later, Tom and Helen bought the property from the young folks who had moved to Vancouver to look for work. Tom and Helen lived on the property for seven years, from 1961 - 1968. In 1966, they were married. In 1968, they sold the property and moved to Creston where Tom continued to work in the sawmill another three years until he retired in 1971.
The family had an interesting experience with a bear while Boots and Fred were first living on the Yahk property alone. A brown bear came prowling close to their little house. Their small feisty dog charged after the bear and ended up being cornered under the washing machine with the bear g to get him out. The only weapon the couple had was a BB gun; they did manage to frighten the bear away temporarily by making a racket. They drove to Creston, borrowed Tom's gun and on their return, found footprints of the bear very close to their front door. Just as they had feared, the bear returned during the night. This time, Fred was able to defend the home by wounding the bear severely. It was later found dead near the edge of a stream a little distance away.
In a letter to her niece, Jeanne, dated Sept. 29, 1961, Helen describes some of their life style while living in Yahk: "Fred and Diana (Boots) bought a small place about 7 miles from Yahk (between Creston and Cranbrook) last summer. We have built a small house for ourselves on it which is built on skids so we can move it when we want to". Both Fred and Tom are working away from home but get home every night. We had a garden but Sanda, Joe and family were here twice since we moved here, once in May and again in July. They like it here and we went for walks around the bush and picked flowers and strawberries. The highway is just beyond the gate and we can see cars and big transports etc. going by all the time. Other than that, our nearest neighbours are 2 miles to the North and about 2 miles to the South, only off the road. A ways farther along the road to the South it is about 5 miles to a neighbours so we are right in the wilderness, only the railway track isn't far away and we hear the trains.
August 20, 1966, Tom and Helen were married in the Cranbrook United Church. Norma and Jeanne, Ethel's daughters, were able to travel to be with their Aunt Helen on her special day. The Beers from Chilliwack came with the large station wagon loaded with their children. The Bacigalupos were living in Salt Lake City, in Stadium Village, cheap student housing, as Jeanne and Barry were students at the University of Utah. They travelled to Yahk in an ancient Cadillac, which gave them some trouble on the way and made them late. They were in time for the family gathering and meal after the wedding. It was wonderful to visit with relatives whom they had not seen for many years. In Yahk, the Bacigalupo children were fascinated with the gas washing machine, gas lamps, the older buildings and the beautiful countryside. They had been confined to city life; the wide-open spaces and different life style were very appealing.
In Vancouver, Boots and Fred were unsuccessful in finding work; they came back to Creston and rented a home. About that time, Tom and Helen also moved to Creston where Tom worked in a mill for three years. In 1971, they bought three and a half acres of property in Windermere, built a garage in which they lived while they built the house, with the help of Arthur Northgraves. During 1974, a couple from Sweden wanted to buy their house; Tom and Helen moved to Enderby, but in 1975, the Swedish couple had difficulty and the sale fell through; Tom and Helen received two thousand dollars for the trouble. They sold their Windermere place in 1978 and moved to Osooyus for six months then bought a house in Armstrong where they stayed for four years then rented the house out and bought another at Sicamoose. January 12th, 1984, Tom passed away. March 1984, Helen made application for residence at the Invermere apartment complex and was able to secure an apartment there by July 1 st. At Sicamoose, she held a sale of the things that she no longer needed. All of her children helped her to make the move back to Invermere, where she still resided until 1998 when she moved to Cranbrook. Tom's ashes were scattered on Windermere Creek.
Helen is happy in her apartment in Invermere. Sanda and Joe live about four miles away in Windermere. Their children, Faith and Rodney and spouses live in homes very close. Faith and her husband have two children; Rodney and his wife have two children also. Helen sees her family often, and has often stayed at Sanda's place a week or more at a time, house sitting or helping with some of the work. Helen gets out on little trips with friends and family; she has not been one to sit around the house. She still has good health for her age.
Boots and Fred live in Abbotsford, B.C. They have two sons, Jeffery, born April 16, 1962 that lives at Kelowna, B.C. He has two children from his first marriage and a one-year-old child in his present marriage. Corey, the other son, was born March 30, 1965, is a single man and lives in Whitehorse, B.C.
Karl was born in Lacombe, Alberta on Jan 15, 1939. Helen, Frank and the two girls had been staying with Val and Maude since the November before. They had to leave the Kootenay for the birth. Karl went into the Kootenay when he was about six months old and lived there until he was six years old. He lived in Invermere with his mother and the girls and went to school there for almost a year when the family moved to the farm four miles from town. When he was fourteen years old, Helen and Karl moved to Penticton for a few months and then to Chilliwack. When he was seventeen, he moved back to Invermere and got work. Later, he lived with Helen and Boots in Kamloops and got work there. He also worked in Lillooet and Creston. In 1962, he married Kay Goffie and they had two children, a son, Curtis, in Dec. 1963 and a daughter, Carrie in 1966. In 1966, he and Fred bought the Shaw place in Wasa and lived there for a few years. Then he built his own house and lived there another few years. In the meantime, he started work for the Skookumchuck Pulp Mill when it was first built. Later, he moved with Curtis to Kimberley and bought a house. (Curtis married.) Karl lived in the house for five or more years; then sold it and bought another house in Marysville. They were together for about nine years. Karl retired from the pulp mill in 2000. Curtis and his wife have two small sons and they also live in Marysville. Carrie is single and is studying for a job in forestry.
Helen's former cabin in the Kootenay is now being used for a resort for cross-country skiers; the owner has some pictures hanging on the walls of Helen, taken when she was young. The log house is gone. An Indian had been doing some work nearby and had lit a bon-fire. He left it unattended while he went to look for his horses. The fire spread to the log house and burned it, Helen’s dishes and other things that were inside. The cabin is one or two miles from Windermere. People had been hauling logs out of the Kootenay area. The government built a bridge across and the property is much more accessible.
About Religion
Helen responded to a question asked by a family member about the religion of Arthur and Eliza Kent and how did many of the Kents become Christian Science members. She said that Eliza and Arthur belonged to the High English Church but that their daughter, Jessie, started with the Christian Science people. She was instrumental in bringing in some of her siblings. Maude read a lot of the literature but never joined. She and Valentine never went to church. When they were young, the Redig girls walked to Sunday School at St. Cyprians English Church a mile and a half or so away.
Ethel graduated from normal school, then taught first through eighth grades in country schools, mostly one room, for four and a half years before she married Arthur. Their first three years of marriage were spent a few miles out of Gadsby, Alberta, on a rented farm. It was in the small log house on that property that their first child, Jeanne, was born. Ethel had been to the hospital on a false alarm; but when she really needed to be in the hospital, a terrific rainstorm had made the roads full of gumbo mud. Arthur's sister, Elsie, a nurse, was there and the doctor arrived on horseback, just in time.
Jeanne was about three years old when the family moved to a larger nearby farm, called
the Wells Place. While living there, Donald, Fred and Norma were born in the Stettler Hospital, twenty-five miles away. In 1938, they, with Granddad Dent Northgraves and son, moved to Chilliwack, British Columbia where Arthur became a successful dairy farmer and later contracted some house building and renovating. Ethel and Arthur are both buried at the cemetery on Little Mountain, Chilliwack.
Maudie and Frank Tillapaugh
Maudie worked in the Bank of Montreal in Vegerville and met her husband, Frank Tillapaugh at the hotel where they both boarded. They were married in Regina when Maudie was about thirty years old, then they travelled around British Columbia for awhile as Frank was working in the Caribou area. He worked for a company that drilled for water and was moved around constantly. He was next sent to Ontario where Maudie lived the rest of her life with Frank, except when his job sometimes took him to another country. Maudie and Frank became the parents of two children, Cheryl and Murray and the grandparents to Shawn, Jean Paul, Jason and Jennifer. In 1967, Frank died from a brain tumor.
Maudie died August 1993 at the age
of eighty-three. They are buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens, London, Ontario, Canada.
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